Was Manti Te’o involved in orchestrating the entire story surrounding the tragic death of his fake girlfriend, Lanny Kukua? Or was he the victim of some cruel hoax? That is the question that many have been asking over the past couple of days, and it appears as though an answer may finally be surfacing.

According to ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” a female church friend of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo has told them, on condition of anonymity, that he called her in December crying as he confessed to tricking Te’o into believing Kukua was real. They go on to say that the woman, who is in her mid-20s, also told them that Ronaiah claimed Manti had nothing to do with the entire hoax. Rather, he was a victim in this entire ordeal, and he wasn’t the first either.

Two more individuals have contacted the program, claiming that their cousin was also a victim of a Tuiasosopo-organized fake girlfriend hoax.

J.R. Vaosa and Celeste Tuioti-Mariner of California told OTL that their cousin had taken up a romance with a model on MySpace by the name of Lanny Kukua. She would agree to meet their cousin at certain places; however, she would always bail and Tuiasosopo would show up at the location instead. Finally, his family intervened, convincing Vaosa’s cousin to end his relationship with Kukua and Tuiasosopo, believing that they were both the same person.

When Vaosa and Tuioti-Mariner saw the story of Te’o’s dying girlfriend in October, they recognized Kukua’s name and knew that Tuiasosopo must have been involved. Unfortunately, when they tried to help by revealing their suspicion on Twitter, their tweets were met with responses of sarcasm and claims that they were the real Lanny Kukua.

Needless to say, all of the doubters out there must feel awfully stupid right about now. And trust me, there are plenty of them.

So will Tuiasosopo finally come out and confess to orchestrating the entire hoax? That is anyone’s guess, but his anonymous friend claims that she has urged him to do so. I guess we’ll simply have to wait and see if he takes her advice.